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February 28, 2003

Leominster plant hosts open house

While the economy continues to struggle, there are indications that it hasn’t reached a complete standstill. That’s the impression Packaging World had after attending a March 19 open house at the expanded North American headquarters facility of DT Packaging Systems (www.dtindustries.com) in Leominster, MA.

At the plant DT was manufacturing packaging lines for several major pharmaceutical firms though confidentiality agreements prevented DT from identifying those firms.

The 105 sq’ plant went online just after last Thanksgiving said DT president Jim Ririe. The plant houses engineering and manufacturing for Lakso Merrill and Kalish equipment as well as sales service change parts systems integration and validation services. "The move to the new larger plant gives us more room to assemble large integrated packaging lines" said Ririe. "And with everyone in one location it’s much easier for customers to reach the people they need."

Along one wall in the plant DT built customer "suites" with phone Internet and e-mail access. "This allows them to electronically convey drawings design changes and CAD files back and forth with management to move along the acceptance process" said Michael Gould during a tour of the plant. Gould was recently appointed director of sales of all Lakso Merrill Kalish Swiftpack and King equipment in North America.

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The customer suites are located on the shop floor close to where the packaging lines are manufactured. That permits customers to inspect the equipment and conduct "F.A.T." (Factory Acceptance Testing) to make sure the equipment meets their specifications.

At Leominster DT demonstrated its first "Valu Line" an integrated tablet-bottling line built for an unnamed customer in 12 weeks. The 30 bpm line shown included two rotary tables a Swiftpack SV2 electronic tablet counter a capper from D.L.-Tech (www.dl-tech.net) a Pillar Technologies (www.pillartech.com) induction sealer Kalish Torquit retorquer and D.L.-Tech pressure-sensitive labeler. The Valu Line concept was introduced at Pack Expo 2002.

Also demonstrated was a 100% accurate hybrid slat filler the DT Merrill 72-39HY for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical bottle packaging. The filler was shown as part of an integrated 300 bpm line that included the slat filler a Lakso Model 300 cottoner and an "S" module connecting two conveyors.

Separately DT also announced the availability of Radius top slats a new style for slat filler change parts. Designed to eliminate "shortcounts" for small tablet applications the radius top slats are curved to match the divider assembly or upper manifold of the slat filler. DT says it was recently awarded a U.S. Patent for the Radius top slat design.